Posts [ 18 ]

Topic: Harpoon - Iceland's first 'stab' at slasher horror

Horror fans with a taste for the more unusual may enjoy this Icelandic riff on Texas Chainsaw Massacre....â€œTHE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE ON A WHALER â€“ A BRILLIANT CONCEPT EXECUTED IN A MOST IMAGINATIVE, OLD SCHOOL WAY. HORROR FANS ARE GOING TO LAP IT UP, BIG TIME.ï¿½ï¿½

(FOUR STARS) â€“ Billy Chainsaw, Bizarre Magazine

The Icelandic film industryâ€™s first ever bona fide foray into in-your-face exploitation horror movie territory, Harpoon: The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre is a blackly comic and supremely gory affair that has led David Hayles of The Times to claim, â€œitâ€™s tourists versus deranged whalers in this fright flick thatâ€™ll make you scream and blubber.ï¿½ï¿½

Having recently been given a rapturously reception by a rabid audience of appreciative horror fans attending a sold out screening at the Glasgow Film Festivalâ€™s Annual Frightfest, Harpoon: The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre comes to DVD in May 2010 courtesy of E1 Entertainment and promises to be one of the most talked about horror releases of the year.

Directed by Julius Kemp (Wallpaper: An Erotic Love Story) and written by award winning novelist and lyricist Sjon Sigurdsson (Dancer In The Dark), the film stars old â€˜Leatherfaceâ€™ himself, Gunnar Hansen (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre), as the ill-fated captain in charge of a tourist whale watching trip that takes a horrifying turn.

When a freak accident leaves the captain of their boat mortally wounded and the first mate jumps ship following his attempted rape of a passenger, a small group of tourists are forced to seek refuge on a passing former whaling vessel manned by a family of â€˜Fishbilliesâ€™ with a psychotic score to settle. With whaling no longer on the agenda, the tourists become the helpless prey aboard a ship that is soon to be sailing on a sea of blood.

An unapologetic homage to the Tobe Hooper classic from which it has pilfered its title, Harpoon: The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre is a gutsy and graphic slasher that adds a dark vein of humour to its increasingly inventive methods of dispatching the unfortunate victims for whom a day trip at sea turns into the worst possible nightmare.

Harpoon: The Reykjavik Whale Watching Massacre (cert. 18) will be released on DVD (Â£12.99) by E1 Entertainment on 10th May 2010.

Re: Harpoon - Iceland's first 'stab' at slasher horror

It's great fun and I liked the fact that it knowingly nods to Texas Chainsaw Massacre and let's the audience in on the references.

Its also quite smart in the way that it updates TCMs themes. In TCM I always thought that the film was about the revenge of the poor on the middle classes that leave them behind.

The meat packing industry fails and the family go feral, then they turn their appetites on the kind of privileged kids that had the freedom to be freaky and free. Basically, they eat the people who have a future because theirs has been taken away.

In Harpoon, set against the background of changing attitudes to the environment, the whalers are left behind as their industry is outlawed, so this time they turn on those who took away their livelihood, in this case Eco-Tourists.

Re: Harpoon - Iceland's first 'stab' at slasher horror

It took me this long to get my hands on this one, and I was disappointed, wonder if anyone else was, too.

What bugged me was that they seemed determined to break every horror plot expectation, not to make a better film, but just because they could. You're supposed to think there's a love interest forming, there isn't. You're supposed to think the good guy will survive, he doesn't. You're supposed to think that the most carnivorous of them all will get it, she doesn't.

After a while, it was easy to guess what would happen next, simply because whatever would happen in another film, this one would do the opposite. But it seemed just a bunch of poorly-disguised tricks, rather than an attempt to turn the genre on its head

Re: Harpoon - Iceland's first 'stab' at slasher horror

I enjoyed the film for the most part. It was shot well, the tech specs were solid enough for the genre, it was actually shot on film (as opposed to the RED 1 and then given the film look), and the characters were diversified enough to be entertaining. The only thing that annoyed me about it was the ending. WHat the hell was the story with the survivor, the airplane ride home etc?? WTF??? Didn't get it at all.

Re: Harpoon - Iceland's first 'stab' at slasher horror

SPOILER ALERT!

I don't think she was wealthy--I think she took the identity of the rich woman who was her boss. That's how it worked for me. It seemed a little far-fetched, but, then again, the whole thing's a little far-fetched, so that didn't seem to be the moment to call them on plausibility!

Re: Harpoon - Iceland's first 'stab' at slasher horror

OMG.... she was bloody JAPANESE, dude!!! Didn't you listen to her dialogue.... she spoke Japanese. LOL.

And I guess what confused me about the ending is why, in a story about cannibal whalers, did they need this ridiculous, out-of-context sub-story that was not at all developed yet used to conclude the film. That character was just one of the tourists, with no outstanding part or discernible focus or ambition, yet she's handed the ending - flying home victorious on an airplane sipping champagne - as if she were a principal character from the beginning. I was like.... WTF??? How did she become so relevant?? It was just so "shoe horned" into this film that it was badly out of place..... considering how you could have ended the film. IMO.